


The Low Rumble of Distant Thunder

by ScienceOfficerWillowRosenberg (left_handed_moth)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/F, Light Angst, Rare Pairings, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 22:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18838228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/left_handed_moth/pseuds/ScienceOfficerWillowRosenberg
Summary: A smoke and a flirt, before the storm hits.





	The Low Rumble of Distant Thunder

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt over at left-handed-moth.tumblr.com

There she was.  The quote unquote dark slayer, with the dark past Kennedy knew little pieces of, smoking alone.  She made it look good.

“Bum one?” she asked.

“Do you even smoke?”

“Nope.  But it’s an ice-breaker.”

Faith exhaled a long stream of smoke.  “And you wanna break the ice why?”

Kennedy wasn’t sure.  Maybe it was her arms in that tank top.  Maybe it was her swagger.  Maybe it was that, for the first time, Kennedy was scared about this whole hellmouth thing.  The big fight was coming.  And that mission to the vineyard had gone all bad.  People were evacuating like a hurricane was coming through.  The cliche was that a storm was coming, and it felt that way.  And maybe that meant she wanted to not be alone.

“Cause I struck out with Willow, and you’re the only other gay girl here who’s not in high school.”  Bratty flirtation was the only flirtation she knew.  And it seemed flirtation was the only way she knew of connecting with Faith.

“80 percent.”

“Huh?”

“80 percent gay.  Guys are convenient.  Don’t have to worry about catching feelings.”  Kennedy wasn’t sure if she’d offended Faith.  “How’d you tell?”

_Because anyone who walks and talks and looks like you is wasted on straight men_ , thought Kennedy, and then decided not to say it.  “Because I’ve seen the way you look at Buffy,” she said.

Faith laughed bitterly.

“Oh, it’s like that.”

“Probably not like whatever you’re thinking,” said Faith, “But we have a history.”

The way she said history, the word sounded like a synonym for  _clusterfuck_.

“Guess you don’t have to worry about cancer as a slayer, huh,” said Kennedy.  It was an obnoxious subject-change, but it was all she could think of.

“Well, the cancer takes a few years, so probably not,” said Faith.

It took Kennedy a second to realize that Faith was confirming a fear Kennedy had only recently begun to have: that slayers die young.

“Don’t worry, you might not be chosen,” said Faith.

“Sure I will,” said Kennedy.  And she believed it.  She was a star among the potentials, and before that, an asset to the track team.  She was a confident student.  And whatever lesbian energy makes girls take the chance, she had.  She was, and had been, the hero of her life.

“You sure you want it?” asked Faith.

And that was the thing.  Of course Kennedy had wanted it.  Everyone wanted to be strong.  But she saw Buffy struggling to keep the gang together, saw the reality of evil, saw deaths and other losses, and slayerhood didn’t feel so empowering anymore.  Kennedy was still sure it would be her.  But that activation now felt, as with the big fight, like an oncoming storm.

“Do you?” asked Kennedy.

“Well, I think it fucked me over less than being ordinary would have fucked me over.  But you’ve got money, right?  You’d be a lot happier just being a normal rich kid.”

Kennedy smiled.

“You know, you wouldn’t look twice at me if we were normal girls.  And if you did, you’d think I was just Southie trash.”

Kennedy wasn’t sure which of them Faith was putting down.  Maybe both.

“Good thing we’re not,” said Kennedy.

“Still going for it, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“’Cause you’re basically lesbian kryptonite.”  Kennedy sighed.  “And, honestly, ‘cause I might die.  And you might die too.” there was no stopping the vulnerability train now.  “And we’re both kinda alone.  And people who might die shouldn’t be.  Alone.”

Faith stubbed out her cigarette.  “I guess this means I brush my teeth so you can kiss me, huh?”

Kennedy hadn’t expected this.  And she must have looked it.

“What?  You’re right.  And you’re cute.”

Kennedy could still feel all those storms coming as she went into the house. She imagined Faith could too.  But they hadn’t hit yet, she told herself.  They were still in the distance, rumbling quietly, at least for now.


End file.
